The fare caps show that some airlines have already made a 100 to 300 per cent hike to be charged as last-minute fares. Kingfisher has mentioned `27,999 as its highest fare in the slab of distances between 1,000 km and 1,400 km (that includes the Delhi-Mumbai sector). Even low-cost carrier GoAir has submitted a sky-high fare-cap of `16,000 even on the short-distance slab of up to 750 km (sectors such as Chennai-Bengaluru and Delhi-Jaipur) while Kingfisher has mentioned the highest fare cap among all carriers, `23,999, in the same short-distance slab.
The civil aviation ministry gas noted that the airlines “had uniformly chosen to file distance slab-wise maximum (highest) passenger fares applicable in their networks”. The manner in which airlines had filed tariffs with the DGCA were completely different from the manner it was offered in the market. ... In various distance slabs, a lot of variations in highest fares were observed from one airline to another,” the civil aviation Ministry stated.
The fare proposals also reveal that the fare caps mentioned by national carrier Air India are roughly at par with private airline Jet Airways. Curiously, JetLite’s fare caps are higher than even those submitted by Jet Airways despite the fact that JetLite functions as the low-cost carrier of Jet. As one official pointed out, “It seems that low-cost carriers are now charging more than even full-service carriers. The distinction between low-cost and full service carriers have blurred. Then why are they still being called low-cost carriers?”
Mr Patel said passengers must clearly be told by the airline in advance what the fare on a certain sector would be on any specific day so that passengers would not receive a nasty shock if they purchased tickets on the day of travel, or just before it.
He said while airlines offer a bucket of fares, and that fares do go up as one nears the date of travel, “passengers cannot be at the mercy of the unknown factor whenever booking is close to the day of travel”.
The minister said a passenger may expect a fare of `10,000 on a certain sector to go up to `12,000 as one nears the date of travel, but not `30,000. He said airlines had resorted to massive fare hikes during the Diwali season and that the government would now not allow them to do the same in the Christmas and New Year season.
He added, “The DGCA is not satisfied with the answers provided by the airlines ... On Saturday, airlines have been asked by the DGCA to explain their viewpoint. DGCA will ask them to do whatever it takes in public interest.”
He added that while the government is “not the fare-determining authority”, it also cannot be a “helpless regulatory authority”, pointing out that corrective action needs to be taken in view of the recent fare hikes. He said the government would strike the right balance.
The minister said airlines had recovered from the effects of the recession and were riding a surge in the aviation sector but this surge had led to a “mismatch” and inability on the part of the airlines to deal with the heavy air traffic (in the peak tourist winter season). “But this does not mean that airlines can take advantage of the situation,” he said.
The EAC, the formation of which was announced on Friday, will hold its first meeting on December 10. Its members will include all CEOs of scheduled airlines as well as airport operators and its mandate will include measures to protect the interests of consumers.
Meanwhile, civil aviation ministry additional secretary E.K. Bharat Bhushan took over additional charge as the Director-General of Civil Aviation for six months, it was officially announced.